Choose the readings you will use
When the calendar offers alternate readings, choose the set for that Mass. Open a reading to see pronunciation help in context.
Stephen for deacons and priests
Meet Stephen.
A prayer companion for everyone who serves at the altar.
The Liturgy of the Hours, the daily Mass readings, and a gentle reminder when it is time to pray, all in one place on your phone. Stephen keeps your page references ready, helps you pronounce the hard names in the readings, and keeps a faithful record of your prayer. No login to remember. No app store.
A quick introduction
Stephen, in one minute.
Shown through a deacon's day. Priests keep the same hours, and Stephen keeps them too. Try it free →
Named for the first deacon
Born in the diaconate. Made for the altar it serves.
Stephen takes his name from St. Stephen, the Church's first deacon and first martyr. A man of deep faith, unshakeable courage, and tireless service to the community he loved.
That same spirit of service is what Stephen is built on. And a deacon's service has always pointed two ways at once: toward the people, and toward the bishop and the priest he assists.
So Stephen started in the diaconate, but he was never going to stay there. Priests open the same breviary, keep the same hours, stand at the same vesting table, read from the same ambo, and carry the same names in prayer. Part of a deacon's job is to make the priest's ministry lighter. Handing that same tool across the sacristy is one more way to do it.
Stephen was created by Jim and Cliff. Jim is currently in formation for the permanent diaconate in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with ordination anticipated in May 2027. Cliff is the technologist who makes it all work. Stephen was born from a simple idea: everyone who serves at the altar, whether in formation, in active ministry, or in retirement, deserves a resource that understands the shape of their day.
It is built to be read, not squinted at: generous type, a calm parchment page, three text sizes, and a night mode for early mornings, Night Prayer, and dim sacristies.
Stephen knows which hours you pray. He knows your books. He knows the liturgical season and the day's readings. And just like Jim, he is still in formation. We will keep building, keep listening, and keep making him better.
Everyday support
A day, kept by the hours.
Stephen is shaped like the day the Church already gives you. Here is where he meets you in it.
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Before the house wakes
The hours you pray, and none of the ones you don't
Tell Stephen once which hours are yours: Office of Readings, Morning, Daytime, Evening, Night. He shows you those and leaves the rest alone. Pray from your books with the page numbers already in front of you, the four-volume set or Christian Prayer or both, or pray online through iBreviary or Divine Office without hunting for the right day. Tap "Mark as Read" and he closes the hour behind you.
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When it is time
A nudge, not a nag
A notification on your phone at the hour you chose, for each hour you chose. If you have already prayed it, Stephen notices and says nothing.
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On the way to Mass
The readings, and the names nobody wants to stumble over
The full text of the day's readings, each one folding open on its own. Pronunciation help is built in: more of it while you are still building your liturgical vocabulary, less once you are not. Look ahead to tomorrow or next Sunday, or jump to any date. When alternate readings are available, you choose the set you will use. Press and hold a word to spell it out your own way, or to tell Stephen to leave it alone. He remembers your choices.
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In the sacristy
The prayers you say while you vest
Amice, alb, cincture, stole, dalmatic or chasuble: the vesting prayer for each piece, in the order you put it on. The purification prayers are there too, on your phone and ready at the vesting table.
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Through the day
The people you are carrying
The sick, the deceased, your parish, whatever lists you keep. Each one works like a to-do list: its intentions come back on the days you choose, every day or particular weekdays, set list by list, and you tick each one off once you have prayed it.
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When ministry raises a question
Ask Stephen, and see where the answer comes from
A question at ten at night, and no one to ask. Ask Stephen. He answers from the sources you would reach for yourself: Scripture, the Catechism, canon law, the liturgical books, the Fathers, and the teaching of the Church, and he tells you where the answer came from. Send a photo of the page you are puzzling over, a document, or a link. Your conversations are saved so you can return to them.
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Before you preach
Homily Workshop Beta
Prepare your homily in one place: the readings for the day you preach, exactly the set you will use; lectio divina; study guides worked out from the sources; and a review of your own draft that guides rather than grades. See what is working, the one change that would help most, where to look, and what to do in your next pass. Stephen never writes the homily. He helps you write yours. The Workshop carries a Beta tag while it is still being built.
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Night Prayer, and the days after
A record of a faithful habit
Every hour you mark builds your streak. Consistency in prayer is worth something, and now you have a record of yours. Encouragement, never judgment. A missed day is a missed day, not a verdict.
All of it on the phone already in your pocket. Add Stephen to your home screen and he opens like an app, with his own icon and his own notifications, and nothing to install from an app store. He works on iPhone, Android, and your computer, stays in step across all three, and remembers your text-size and light-or-dark preference everywhere you sign in.
Inside Stephen
See what is waiting for you.
Current screens from Stephen on phone and desktop. Tap any image to open the full-size view.
Make the page comfortable to read
Choose light or dark mode and one of three text sizes. Your preference follows you from phone to computer.
Ask, with sources
Ask a liturgical or ministry question and see the Church sources behind the answer.
A useful second reader for your homily
The Workshop reviews your own draft under the same practical headings each time: what is working, the one change that would help most, where to look, smaller things, and your next pass.
How it works
Up and running in two minutes.
1
Sign up
Your name and email. That is the whole form, and it takes about twenty seconds.
2
Tap the link
Stephen emails you a secure link. Tap it and you are in, with no login to remember.
3
Add to home screen
One tap in Safari or Chrome and he sits beside your other apps. Stephen shows you how.
4
Set your hours
Choose the hours you pray, your books or your online source, and when to be reminded.
Open Stephen
Stephen is ready when you are.
Create your free account, or sign in if you already have one, then add him to your phone's home screen for easy access.
Simple pricing
Praying with Stephen is free. Always.
The Hours, daily Mass readings, prayer intentions, prayers of the deacon, reminders, and your own homily notes remain free. We charge only for heavier use of the AI-assisted tools that cost money to run.
Stephen
$0
No credit card. No trial. Sign up with your name and email and start praying.
Stephen Plus
$8 a month
or $48 a year, save 50%
For those who use the AI-assisted study, draft-review, and Ask tools more often. Plus removes the usage limits; it does not change how Stephen works.
The free plan is a real plan, not a trial. Nobody is asked for a card at sign-up or shown a price while signing up.
Privacy and transparency
We are transparent about everything. Full stop.
Your trust matters more than anything else we could build. Here is exactly how Stephen handles your data. No fine print, no surprises.
- Your prayer history and settings are stored securely on our own server, private to you.
- Your name and email are used to sign you in and to send you Stephen's own messages. You may also receive occasional news and offers from the Deacon Store. Every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing never affects your Stephen account.
- Stephen uses Claude, Anthropic's AI model, for pronunciation help in the readings, for the study guides and draft feedback in the Homily Workshop, and to answer your questions in Ask. The readings themselves come from the USCCB. Your name and email are never sent to Anthropic. In the Workshop and Ask, only what you send Stephen, such as your question, draft, picture, document, or link, goes across.
- The Liturgy of the Hours pages you pray online are iBreviary's and Divine Office's own sites, shown inside Stephen. We do not change them.
- We do not sell your data. We do not share your data with advertisers. We never will.
Stephen and the Church's guidance on AI
We take the Church's teaching on AI seriously.
In May 2026, Pope Leo XIV issued Magnifica Humanitas, the first papal encyclical dedicated to artificial intelligence. We read it carefully. Here is how Stephen measures up, honestly.
"Technology is never neutral. It takes on the characteristics of those who devise and use it."
Stephen was created for the deacons and priests who serve the Church. Its purpose is prayer support and ministry accompaniment, not engagement metrics or data harvesting.
"Human dignity is ontological, not earned through productivity or performance."
Stephen tracks your prayer streak because consistency in prayer is a worthy goal. But a missed day is never a moral failure. Stephen is here to encourage, never to judge.
"Transparency and accountability in AI systems."
Stephen uses AI for pronunciation help in the readings, for research, study guides, and draft feedback in the Homily Workshop, and to answer questions in Ask. Never the homily itself. We tell you plainly where AI is used and whose it is.
"Concentration of power in private transnational actors."
We acknowledge that Stephen depends on Anthropic for that AI help, one of the large private actors the encyclical rightly cautions about. We monitor this actively. As better or more mission-aligned alternatives emerge, we will evaluate them.
We are committed to staying in communion with the Church on this. Magnifica Humanitas will not be the last word on AI, and Stephen will not stop evolving. We will keep reading, keep listening, and keep you informed.
Ready to meet Stephen?
Meet Stephen and start praying with him today.
Deacon or priest, in formation, in active ministry, or in retirement, Stephen is ready to serve.
FAQ
Common questions
Do I need to download an app?
No. Stephen runs in your phone's browser, and once you add him to your home screen he looks and works like an app, with his own icon, full screen, and notifications. There is nothing in the App Store or Play Store to install.
How do I get into Stephen?
Enter your email and Stephen sends you a secure link. Tap it and you are in. On a new device, enter your email again and Stephen sends a fresh link. There is no login to remember.
Which hours does Stephen cover?
All five: Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. You pick which ones you pray and which get reminders.
Where do the page numbers come from?
Page references for Morning and Evening Prayer come from the published guides at liturgyofthehours.org, for both the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours and the one-volume Christian Prayer. If you pray online, iBreviary and Divine Office show the full text, and Divine Office includes page numbers for every hour along with audio.
What about the new edition of the Liturgy of the Hours?
A new English edition of the Liturgy of the Hours is on the way, and Stephen is ready for it. Stephen does not publish the hours himself. He points you to the source you choose: iBreviary, Divine Office, or your own books. When the new edition arrives, one of two things will happen. Either iBreviary and Divine Office will carry it, or other sources will, and we will simply add them. Either way, you keep praying the way you do today. Our job is not to replace the great content and layouts that already exist. It is to bring them together in one place for our community.
Where do the readings come from?
From the USCCB, the official source for the Mass readings in the United States. Stephen adds pronunciation help on top.
Is Stephen only for deacons?
No. Stephen began in the diaconate, but the hours, the readings, the vesting prayers, and the work of preparing a homily belong just as much to a priest. Nothing in Stephen asks what you were ordained to, or when. Open him up and you will find your own books, your own hours, and your own sacristy already there. Seminarians, religious, and lay people who pray the Office are welcome too. The door is open.
Is Stephen Catholic?
Yes, in the plainest sense: what he carries is Catholic. The Liturgy of the Hours, the Roman lectionary, the readings from the USCCB, the prayers of the sacristy. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and we are not going to water any of it down. But those books are prayed well beyond the Catholic Church, and the shape of a day built around the Office is the same wherever it is kept. If you are a deacon, a priest, or a minister in another tradition and the Office is part of your life, Stephen is yours to use. Nobody is asked to show credentials at the door.
Is my data private?
Your prayer history and settings live on our own server and are visible to no one but you. Nothing is sold or shared. See the privacy and transparency section above.
How much does Stephen cost?
Praying with Stephen is free and always will be. Stephen Plus is available for heavier use of the AI-assisted Workshop and Ask tools at $8 a month or $48 a year.
Can I make the text bigger?
Yes. Settings offers Normal, Larger, and Largest text sizes, and your choice follows you to every device. Stephen also has a night mode that follows your phone's setting or the preference you choose.
Who built Stephen?
Jim and Cliff, the team behind the Deacon Store. Jim is currently in formation for the permanent diaconate in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with ordination anticipated in May 2027. Cliff is the technologist who keeps everything running. As Jim is in formation, so is Stephen. We will keep building, keep improving, and always welcome your feedback.
What AI does Stephen use?
Claude, the AI model developed by Anthropic, for pronunciation help in the readings, for study guides and draft feedback in the Homily Workshop, and to answer your questions in Ask. Your name and email are never sent to Anthropic. He never writes a homily. We are transparent about this because we believe you deserve to know.
Will Stephen write my homily if I ask him in Ask?
No. Ask follows the same rule as the Workshop. Stephen will help you research, study, structure, and review. The words of the homily remain yours.
What does the Beta tag on the Workshop mean?
The Workshop is still being built. Things there will change, and now and then something may not work the way you expect. When the Beta tag comes off, it is finished and fully supported. If something is off or you have an idea, write to jim@deaconstore.com.
Is Stephen going to do anything else for me?
Yes. Stephen will keep growing from daily prayer into more of the ministry work deacons and priests carry. Tools for marriage preparation, funerals, and OCIA are among the areas being considered. We will add new features carefully and announce them when they are ready.
Stephen. Built for those who serve.
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Questions? Write to jim@deaconstore.com.